Today, it is well known that a percentage of the face value of every Olympic stamp issued worldwide will go to the Olympic Committee in the respective countries where the stamps are sold to help train athletes for the Olympics. This practice of the use of postage stamps to help defray Olympic expenses dates back to the first Olympiad in Athens in 1896. As an example of the above the following incident may be cited. On the eve of the 1980 Olympics, Jesse Owens, winner of four Olympic gold medals in one year and the only athlete to set five world records in a day, presented the US Olympic Committee with the first in a series of donations on behalf of the 1980 Olympic Stamp and Coin programmes. The Germany Olympic stamp shown here features the actual denomination of the stamp plus one surcharge value. This surcharge value is meant for olympic activities.

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